What occurs when a Ph.D. with a ardour for habits change, a knack for curriculum design, and a present for connection leads your well being coach coaching? You get Dr. Shana Walsh—AFPA’s Director of Schooling and Curriculum, and the chief of our Grasp Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach program.
With a Ph.D. in Kinesiology, Train Vitamin, and Well being Promotion, in addition to credentials as a Nationwide Board-Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach, Grasp Licensed Well being Schooling Specialist, and Licensed Private Coach, Dr. Walsh brings a long time of expertise to each course she touches. From shaping what you be taught behind the scenes to guiding dwell Zoom periods with power and empathy, she’s each the architect and advocate to your teaching journey.
On this interview, Shana shares her method to constructing student-centered packages, what makes AFPA’s dwell cohort expertise so distinctive, and some enjoyable info, just like the time she did a pull-up whereas hula-hooping.
The Secrets and techniques Behind AFPA’s Curriculum
As AFPA’s Schooling & Curriculum Director, how do you form the scholar studying expertise?
My position encompasses your entire course improvement lifecycle. This ranges from the strategy planning stage, the place we strategize new course choices and matters that align with scholar wants, to creating written and video studying supplies, and securing top-tier instructors which can be specialists of their respective areas. I’m additionally concerned in helping present college students all through their AFPA studying journey. In each stage, I prioritize the standard of the training we offer, making certain essentially the most beneficial and relevant content material for our college students. It’s extraordinarily rewarding to see one thing go from an thought scribbled on a notepad in pencil to a certification college students can earn to alter the trajectory of their profession and their lives.
What’s one thing most individuals may not notice about how AFPA develops its curriculum?
Most individuals may not notice that we at all times begin by asking, ‘What’s greatest for the scholar?’ The reply to that single query drives each determination we make, from the matters we train, the educating strategies we make use of, the instructors we choose, and even the little particulars, just like the on-screen colours in our programs (nay for orange, yay for blue).
Past course improvement, what usually goes unseen is how a lot we have a good time alongside our college students. After they earn their certificates and discover success within the discipline, we’re completely ecstatic. In any case, that’s our final objective: to offer the training they should really propel them into the skilled roles they search.
How do you guarantee AFPA’s packages keep present with analysis, developments, and greatest practices?
Within the well being business, new analysis is continually rising, offering new info and redefining greatest practices. At AFPA, we perceive that offering our college students with outdated info is solely not an choice, so we take a proactive method as an alternative. We make it part of our routine to observe the most recent problems with main tutorial and business journals, attend business conferences, tune into webinars, and community with different skilled organizations and specialists within the discipline. We’ve even been identified to edit a dwell course to tweak a truth or two primarily based on newly gleaned information. We do that to ensure that when our college students graduate, they’ve essentially the most present info doable to excel of their careers.
What do you see as a number of the most useful abilities college students acquire from AFPA packages?
A few of the most useful abilities college students acquire from AFPA packages embody:
- Complete Data: Each single one in all our programs offers a wealth of data on the subject of examine. For college students actually looking for to realize experience in a particular space, AFPA is the last word useful resource.
- Holistic Views: At AFPA, we deeply perceive how intertwined all areas of well being are. For that cause, we infuse holistic views into all the things we train, supporting our college students to see the larger image.
- Sensible Utility and Teaching Expertise: It’s one factor to know what to do, nevertheless it’s one other to have the ability to do it successfully. We don’t simply train the talents, we additionally present ample observe alternatives to use them to actual world situations.
- Skilled Confidence and Profession Readiness: Our packages are designed to construct college students’ confidence of their skills, making ready them to excel on their chosen profession journey.
What makes the dwell cohort expertise particular at AFPA?
The Superior Well being Teaching Intensive is the dynamic, dwell element of our Licensed Grasp Well being and Wellness Coach program, and it’s AFPA’s solely dwell course. In a single Zoom room, we unite folks from throughout the nation and across the globe. Whereas all of us come from vastly totally different walks of life, we share a profound commonality: a deep need to empower others to turn out to be one of the best model of themselves. There’s magic in bringing collectively adults of all ages, with their various backgrounds and wealthy life experiences, watching them be taught and develop collectively. It’s really transformative.
Study Tips on how to Set Your self Aside as a Board-Licensed Well being Coach
Attending to Know Dr. Walsh Outdoors the Classroom
What are a couple of quirky or stunning issues about you that your college students may not know?
I’ve efficiently accomplished one pull up whereas hula-hooping.
Additionally, I’ve scored within the 99th percentile for extroversion on a number of persona assessments. Once I was in first grade, my instructor moved my seat for speaking so many occasions, I ended up sitting subsequent to each single child in school.
I didn’t be taught to trip a motorbike till I used to be an grownup, as a result of as a child I needed to focus all my power on rollerblading.
If you’re not engaged on curriculum, educating, or teaching, how do you recharge?
As a quintessential extrovert, I recharge by spending time with others. Whether or not it’s from good dialog with my neighbors sitting across the firepit, some pleasant competitors in rec pickleball, or absorbing high quality time at house with my household, the power I get from social connectedness fills my cup.
In the event you needed to sum up your philosophy on habits change in a single sentence, what wouldn’t it be?
In the event you change your well being, you modify your life.
Her Recommendation for Aspiring Coaches
What recommendation would you give to somebody who’s on the fence about becoming a member of the subsequent dwell well being teaching session?
In the event you’re on the fence about becoming a member of the subsequent dwell course, remind your self that this is likely one of the best and reasonably priced methods to turn out to be a Nationwide Board Licensed Well being and Wellness Coach. As an NBHWC-Accredited program, AFPA presents a direct and supportive path to board certification with out pointless delays or bills.
In case your objective is to offer a significant service to others by means of the facility of well being and wellness teaching, whereas incomes a dwelling doing work that makes a distinction, that is your alternative. You’ll acquire the talents to assist folks make actual, lasting adjustments of their lives—and be compensated for the worth you present. Well being and wellness teaching continues to be an rising discipline, which suggests there’s room to develop, contribute, and set up your self in an rising career.
On the identical time, this isn’t nearly your purchasers—it’s a transformative expertise for you, too. Via this coaching, you’ll deepen your individual self-awareness, develop important teaching abilities, and construct the arrogance wanted to not solely cross the board examination however to actually be a fantastic coach.
If that sounds just like the type of profession and private development you’ve been in search of, cease hesitating and join as we speak!
📆 The subsequent AFPA dwell well being teaching session begins quickly.
Be part of a world group of aspiring coaches and be taught from a number of the discipline’s main educators.
